Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has revealed more details behind the decision to consider reverting to the previous Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) calendar.

CAF announced in December 2025 that AFCON would move from a biennial to a four-year cycle, starting from 2028.

The announcement, made ahead of the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, was part of a wider restructuring aimed at improving financial sustainability and aligning international fixtures with the global football calendar.

However, Motsepe has now disclosed that the decision was also influenced by concerns involving one of CAF’s major sponsors, while the governing body had long been uncomfortable with the prospect of waiting four years between AFCON tournaments.

Speaking as cited by SABC Sport, Motsepe explained that CAF had initially viewed the African Nations League as a way to address the concerns surrounding the longer interval.

“We took proper advice and the decision was taken because taking all of the facts and information into account at the time was the right thing to do and it was also gonna have significant benefit because there was a significant issue that we were looking at with one of our major sponsors,” he added.

“We always had discomfort with a four year gap and that’s why if you recall, we initially said the African Nations League was going be identical to the AFCON, it was indeed the solution.

“So, you were gonna have the current AFCON as we have it every two years and every four years there was gonna be, we were exploring a 28 team AFCON and of course many of the member associations came back and said, president Motsepe, if you are going to have 28 national teams at an AFCON, many of us will not qualify and it goes against this principle that you’ve emphasised about having every zone hosting the World Cup.”